Medication dispensing cabinets have been developed to store and controllably dispense a variety of medications. A medication dispensing cabinet may include a cabinet body with one or more drawers that are slideably disposed within the cabinet body. The drawers store the various medications. While some of the drawers may be unlatched and freely openable, other drawers may be locked in order to more closely control access to the medications stored in the locked drawers.
Some medication dispensing cabinets are automated and, as such, include or are otherwise associated with a computer that controls access to the compartments that store medications within the cabinet. The computer may allow access to only authorized users, such as pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who stock the cabinet and medical providers who dispense medications from the cabinet to patients.
As a result, when medication goes missing, there are usually at least two people who have entered the compartment in which the missing medication should have been stored. The first person may be a pharmacist or other user who was supposed to have stocked the medication into the compartment or a nurse who first accesses the compartment to dispense medication. The second person may be another nurse who subsequently accesses the compartment and discovers (and reports) medication as missing. In some instances, there may have been even more people interacting with the cabinet before the medicine is reported as missing.
Upon discovering that medication is missing, an investigation is often required to determine the cause of the discrepancy. Unfortunately, it may often times be challenging to conclusively determine the cause of the discrepancy.